How to get banned by the Council.....
Is it really true that 10 out of 12 pupils at Castlebay failed Higher English, as a previous comment has claimed?
How does this compare to:
(a) previous years? (I can't find any details on the web), and
(b) everywhere else? (ditto, but they may be out next week)
If this is correct, it would appear that pupils' (and parents') complaints were fully justified, and that IIRC the educational achievement in Barra has gone through the floor.
As for being banned - previous discussion of this subject was met by a blocking of this website by the Council servers. They would probably have been better dealing with the educational issues.
Update Monday: I'm told that the school and education authority level data is being collated and checked before being issued later this week. That'll give the Council time to decide how to spin it all.
How does this compare to:
(a) previous years? (I can't find any details on the web), and
(b) everywhere else? (ditto, but they may be out next week)
If this is correct, it would appear that pupils' (and parents') complaints were fully justified, and that IIRC the educational achievement in Barra has gone through the floor.
As for being banned - previous discussion of this subject was met by a blocking of this website by the Council servers. They would probably have been better dealing with the educational issues.
Update Monday: I'm told that the school and education authority level data is being collated and checked before being issued later this week. That'll give the Council time to decide how to spin it all.
30 comments:
maybe they all spoke gaelic and the English teacher just could not understang ?
Aye, the want of a ferry for a few weeks has had a devastating effect on the Barraich.
Something else for Ath an Duine to blame CalMac for.
WOW!! Who will they blame now, the parents,pupils the press?????? will the department please hold their hands up and take the blame for failing our kids
Glad the last two commentors could find humour in the sadness of these results with regards to our children's future. I hope they never have their children failed by someone else.
Y'now, 5:16 and 7:47, I'm up for a bit of humour and crack at most situations. I've done it myself on here many a time. Sometimes, it's even been funny.
Not this time. Not this situation. You have one go only at being 16, one go at your highers. If you fail, you fail. If you should have passed, but you failed because of your school and its education provision, then it's verging on criminal.
These things can affect, massively, what you do FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
And it's not just the kids. It's the island. Who the hell is going to want to move to Barra if their kids are as good as going to fail their exams - irrelevant of how good they are?
Either this needs to be fixed - massively, and not just tinkered with - or Barra as a long term, sustainable, community is dead.
How did other subjects go? Was this just a problem with the teaching of English, or all subjects in general?
I hope someone helps this time. It would be good to know the results from the other schools in the Islands.
National results are available on the SQA website. For other schools in the islands, I guess we'll just have to wait a little.
Pass rate at schools for highers overall is, nationally, about 75%. For English highers it's just under 70%.
I look forward to the results from Outer Hebrides schools for English higher in particular. Not just at Castlebay, but at Liniclate as well.
On English Highers alone, it is 82%failure at Castlebay school. I will look forward to The Director and Chair of Education putting a spin on this one.
Shocking! A reflection showing up the lack of/poor quality teaching throughout all years at the school.
The results speak volumes, validating the parents and pupils, who are constantly intimidated into silence for speaking up against the low grade education.
What happens to these children now as they look to their futures.
Yet the school management team have been so keen to pat themselves on the back.
A big focus on the provision of education is needed.
Interesting to know the BBC journalists that were educated on the Island what their grades were and how they feel about the treatment of these children’s hope and chances shattered before they board the ferry
Two gentlemen from Barra present regularly and present well. alas this years higher students will not have that career to follow.
For all that implied the parents were agitators and hounding teacher I hope they are proud of there efforts as they have failed children and the teachers that cried that the parents were bullying them. I have a question were their children failed in this school?. To read the previous blogg on this subject only highlights the injustice that was delivered to the pupils.
What is really telling is the total silence of both the education department and the school.
Having sat through many meetings with the representatives of the education department telling parents that they were overreacting, these same representatives would appear to have little to say now hard evidence is available to all. Further when parents extracted an admission that there 'may' be a problem, these representatives showed that they were more interested in the career paths of the teachers than the education of the children. How? Simply by telling all changes couldn't happen overnight but would take years!
Those who have an interest in these matters might take the time to have a look at what happened in St Pauls primary school in Paisley.
Is it true that the parent council recorded all meetings with the CnES permission, if so they should be uplifted on to the web for all to hear.
From the HMIE March 2010 follow up report (among many other goodies.)
'The needs of those studying English at the secondary stages are not being met effectively.'
Why is it taking so long for the council to produce these results; it's not like they have tens or hundreds of thousands of pupils to deal with?
Is this an attempt to string it out as much as possible, in the hope that all but the most committed have lost interest in the end?
If it is ... it's not going to work ...
count down is on to the new term SOMEBODY HELP THESE FAMILIES. AS IT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN ALL OVER AGAIN.
I think the silence means they are trying to work out who is going to swing for this? will it be someone in their office or someone down in Caslebay School???
after all there is nobody left in the English department.
5.08pm Reply
These BBC boys were educated at the Nicholson Institute in the days before ahem 'Higher' classes in Castlebay School!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re - 11.53
Not quite accurate. Michael was educated in the Nicolson. Raymond, as far as I know, spent six years in Barra.
However, it is a bit of a ridiculous argument. How many people anywhere grow up to become News reporters? They are always going to be exceptions, not, like 5.08 seems to suggest, the rule.
In other words, let's get real with this debate. You owe that at least to the children who go to school there.
The teachers aren't back until today I think - so they would probably, officially, have to wait to get their views.
The teachers:
http://uk.ratemyteachers.com/castlebay-community-school/25618-s
It speaks for itself
It stikes me that it might be be better for the chidlren of Barra if they were placed in boarding schools.
I think there is hope for Castlebay school after looking at this link - thats if the 'powers that be' do the decent thing!! No exscuse now................
Headteacher demoted and eight staff bumped elsewhere at failing school - Daily Express
www.paisleydailyexpress.co.uk
THE entire teaching staff at a Paisley school is being shipped out and the headteacher given the elbow after failing to meet basic education standards ...
The problem is RIGHT NOW. Get the kids out of there and get them a proper education.
who would you sack if your footie team wasn't performing ? yes the managment!!not the players
this isn't the teachers but the SMT if they are worth their money they should have seen this coming.
Are you kidding? Everyone from CNES downwards have been in total denial for years! Their attitude IS that some parents are just hysterical rabble rouser's. Just look at some of the posts on the previous thread on this subject.
Most if not all involved within the education department are, in my opinion incompetent and nothing will change until someone sues them for failing the children.
Only when the decision makers are truly and publicly held to account over their failure of responsibility will things change.
It's refreshing to read in the Stornoway Gazette that the MP and MSP have taken a nonpartisan stance on the issue, and that the MP is putting his children's education before his political career.
I don't think any of the MP's children are old enough for secondary
8.12
I think that you might find that the quality of education in Barra and the MP's career are not unconnected issues.
Post a Comment